Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen said of recent protests that “a large part of this anger is due to an underlying systemic problem that occurs across this country, and that is racism.”

Likening the uproar in Albany Saturday night to “being in battle,” Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy said, “I was as close as I felt to being in a war zone in downtown Albany — gunfire going, fireworks. It was pretty crazy. I said, ‘Man, I feel like I’m back in Iraq.’”

In addition to the cultural inheritance an institution like slavery leaves in its wake, the authors of “Gather at the Table” cite studies that show the effects of such hardship and pain can be passed on through generations due to changes in DNA.

Two local residents whose families’ roots are in Shubuta, Mississippi — a town known for two horrific group lynchings — talk about the way that their relatives responded to the racism they encountered in their hometown.